Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [1 Corinthians: Chapter 3].
punishment is certain and equally effective. The church-wrecker
God will wreck. What does Paul mean by "will destroy"? Does he
mean punishment here or hereafter? May it not be both? Certainly
he does not mean annihilation of the man's soul, though it may
well include eternal punishment. There is warning enough here to
make every pastor pause before he tears a church to pieces in
order to vindicate himself. {Holy} (\hagios\). Hence deserves
reverential treatment. It is not the building or house of which
Paul speaks as "the sanctuary of God" (\ton naon tou theou\), but
the spiritual organization or organism of God's people in whom
God dwells, "which temple ye are" (\hoitines este humeis\). The
qualitative relative pronoun \hoitines\ is plural to agree with
\humeis\ (ye) and refers to the holy temple just mentioned. The
Corinthians themselves in their angry disputes had forgotten
their holy heritage and calling, though this failing was no
excuse for the ringleaders who had led them on. In 6:19 Paul
reminds the Corinthians again that the body is the temple
(\naos\, sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit, which fact they had
forgotten in their immoralities.
3:18 {Let no man deceive himself} (\M•deis heauton exapat•\). A
warning that implied that some of them were guilty of doing it
(\m•\ and the present imperative). Excited partisans can easily
excite themselves to a pious phrenzy, hypnotize themselves with
their own supposed devotion to truth. {Thinketh that he is wise}
(\dokei sophos einai\). Condition of first class and assumed to
be true. Predicate nominative \sophos\ with the infinitive to
agree with subject of \dokei\ (Robertson, _Grammar_, p. 1038).
Paul claimed to be "wise" himself in verse 10 and he desires
that the claimant to wisdom may become wise (\hina gen•tai
sophos\, purpose clause with \hina\ and subjunctive) by becoming
a fool (\m•ros genesth•\, second aorist middle imperative of
\ginomai\) as this age looks at him. This false wisdom of the
world (1:18-20,23; 2:14), this self-conceit, has led to strife
and wrangling. Cut it out.
3:19 {Foolishness with God} (\m•ria para t•i the•i\). Whose
standard does a church (temple) of God wish, that of this world
or of God? The two standards are not the same. It is a pertinent
inquiry with us all whose idea rules in our church. Paul quotes
Job 5:13. {That taketh} (\ho drassomenos\). Old verb
\drassomai\, to grasp with the hand, is used here for the less
vivid word in the LXX \katalamban•n\. It occurs nowhere else in
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